Armenian composer wins second prize at Basel Composition Competition

Composer, Associate Professor of Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, conductor of Assonance Ensemble Artur Akshelyan has been awarded the second prize at Basel Composition Competition.

A total of 12 works were selected from more than 355 submitted scores. Orchestral works that have not yet been performed and have not yet been awarded a prize were eligible to be submitted. The compositions were selected by a top-class jury chaired by the Swiss composer Michael Jarrell.

Artur Akshelyan’s “Three Pieces for Orchestra” will be performed by Sinfonieorchester Basel under the baton of Francesc Prat.

The jury awarded the 1st prize to Yiqing Zhu from China and the 3rd prize was awarded to Miguel Morate from Spain.

Artur Akshelyan was born in Yerevan on December 28, 1984, his first composition studies began at the Komitas State Conservatory with Vartan Adjemian followed by classes with Michael Jarrell and Luis Naon at the Haute Ecole de Musique of Geneva (Switzerland), as well as working under Richard Cornell at Boston University in The USA.

He has collaborated with many Ensembles and orchestras across Europe and Canada including the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Montreal), Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris), Ensemble Insomnio (Amsterdam), Arditti Quartet (London), Ensemble Moderne Lemanic, Ensemble Contrechamps (Genève), Musique Nouvelles (Bruxelles), Ensemble Divertimento (Milan), Ensemble Pre-art etc. Featuring festivals: “Musica Nova” in Helsinki, “Festival Amadeus”, “Gaia Festival” in Geneva, Shanghai New Music Week, Gaudeamus New Music Week in Amsterdam, Abeldoben music festival and others.

He is a winner of several international awards including prizes at NEM Young Composers International Forum, Geneva competition, “Gaudeamus prize” Pre -Art etc. Recent commissions are from the festival “Dilijan chamber music series”, Festival Flagey, Pre-art, Orpheus competition, Foundation Minkoff.

Source: Public Radio of Armenia